NEW DELHI: As consumers catch fancy of online retail for buying books and electronics rather than going to physical stores, realty giant DLF has decided to shift focus in its new mall -- one of the biggest in India -- to other categories like upmarket fashion, food and entertainment.

The derisking model is key for this ambitious project, named 'DLF Mall of India, which is being developed at an investment of Rs 1,100 crore and the company expects an annual revenue of Rs 200 crore from this property.

The mall, with nearly 2 million sq ft of leasable area, is scheduled to open in March at Noida near here.

"The mall is expected to be operational in spring summer of 2015. We are internally targeting March," DLF Utilities Sr Vice President (Leasing & Mall Head) Pushpa Bector told.

At the outset, about 70 per cent of the total mall area would be operational. The leasing activities have almost been completed and fit-outs are being done.

Asked about strategy to deal with growing e-commerce, she said: "Our strategy is to focus on overall customer experience and ensure that customer is happily engaged for a whole day in the mall by having great entertainment, food and shopping".

Noting that the "category mix" has to be changed in tune with the e-commerce trends, Bector said: "Therefore, our focus is on fashion, food and entertainment. We have kept less space for electronics and books".

Bector said that books and electronics are very popular on online retail sites and footfall at physical stores for these products may suffer because of growing popularity of e-commerce.

Out of total nearly 20 lakh sq ft of area in the mall, DLF has dedicated about 5.6 lakh ft on global fashion and another 5.7 lakh sq ft on food and entertainment.

"We will offer the largest DT Star Cinemas property in Delhi-NCR with 7 screens with a capacity of 2,000 seats. We will have food court with 1,000 seating capacity," she said.

That apart, Bector said there would be a separate zone that would offer 23 casual dining options.

Earlier, sources had said that the company has formed an internal team to study the impact of e-commerce on the retail business and also suggest ways to deal with it.

Bector said the mall would be home to more than 475 retail units and a three level parking space for 3,500 vehicles.

DLF currently has about 28 million sq ft of operational commercial area, of which about 2.5 million sq ft is retail. It has three operational malls in the national capital.

The national capital-based DLF has a land bank of nearly 300 million sq ft of area, of which about 50 million sq ft is under construction.

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